Alicia works with community development corporations, private developers, and non-profits to create visions of spaces that reflect their mission and goals for positive change.

Favorite Black space: My favorite Black space is any place my family reunions take place. So much of my family's legacy shines through during these times together.

Armando is an equity-centered transit planner and geographer focused on empowering communities through mobility and spatial analysis. He is from Montgomery County, MD and earned his Masters in Urban Planning from Harvard University. He currently lives in Hyde Park, Chicago.

Favorite Black space: My family's compound in Viriginia where my grandmother and two uncles each have a house. This is where all graduation parties, cookouts, birthday parties, and holiday celebrations take place.

Beryl Briane (she/her) has a vested interest in supporting cultural organizations who work with communities of color to maximize funding & mission impact. She is the Co-Executive Director of viBe Theater & lead consultant for Knollwood Arts & Creative- a boutique consultancy.

My favorite Black space is Ode to Babel- a Black sister owned haunt where you can find beautiful art and good vibes, food, cocktails, and community.

Britt Redd is the Interim Executive Director of the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center and Founder of Ubuntu Planning Studio. Britt teaches at Ball State University and is pursuing an Executive Master’s in Nonprofit Administration at Notre Dame.

Favorite Black space: With my friends and family around the dinner table.

Cara Michell is an artist and Professor. Previously, she was an urban planner in NYC and Toronto. Her community-led cartography has been featured at MoMA PS1, La Mama Galleria, the New Museum, and Creative Time. In 2015, she co-founded and co-chaired the Black in Design conference.

Favorite Black space: Tompkins Ave on Sundays because I can go there and be surrounded by the music, joy, and people of Black Brooklyn. It brings me back to summer afternoons on my great-grandmother's Bed-Stuy stoop.

Chandra is an urban planner, advocate and artist. A background in community development and environmental justice informs her design approach of working with stakeholders in a participatory process to support capacity building, achieve place-based solutions & reimagine systems.

Favorite Black space: 31st St Beach because of the vibrant energy, deep laughter and joyful music.

Charlie Redd is a sound healer and wellness teacher. At the core of everything that she does is a passion a mission to create spaces where people from marginalized groups can show up as their whole selves.

Courtney Morgan is an artist, storyteller, place keeper, urban designer, and environmental advocate of Jamaican descent, who’s work redistributes power by using design as a social practice.

Favorite Black space: BlackSpace creates accessible tools for communities and designers to co-create together. The inclusion of multiple narratives and experiences makes BlackSpace feel like a community I want to be a part of.

Daphne is an urban planner, policymaker, and artist. She is a Public Scholar at The Moynihan Center at City College where her work explores the intersections between science fiction and city planning. Previously she worked on climate policy and land use projects for New York City.

Favorite Black space: Currently it's Shirley Chisholm Park. It's a beautiful state park that feels like a Black space because it's surrounded by Black communities in southeast Brooklyn. When you enter the park you're greeted by a beautiful mural of Shirley Chisholm. I love seeing Black people outdoors walking, biking, BBQ-ing, fishing, and being joyful in public space.

Devon manages the programs and outreach efforts at the historic Madam Walker Legacy Center. As a freelance artist and meditation practitioner, Ginn’s practice examines the psychogeographies of the built environment through the lens of defiant joy and mindfulness.

Favorite Black space: The Indianapolis Public Library's Center for Black Literature and Culture elevates the artistic, academic, and social contributions of Black people from across the African diaspora. It is one of my favorite spots to study and chill.

DJ Williams, a proud Brooklynite, is passionate about stewarding abundance and facilitating fulfillment in the systems we operate in everyday. DJ graduated from Amherst College and is pursuing an MBA at UChicago Booth. DJ spends her 5 to 9 doing hair, baking, crafting, volunteering.

Favorite Black space: My favorite Black space is (was) the Harold's on Michigan and 16th in Chicago. Apart from the delicious food, the atmosphere is welcoming and friendly in the most Chicago way.

Emma Osore is a Brooklyn-based community designer, BlackSpace founder & its Executive Director. Prior, she led first-of-its-kind initiatives at NEW INC, Americans f/t Arts, City of Beverly Hills & DC Public Schools to establish communities that re-shape public policy & practice.

Favorite Black space: Prince Georges County, MD - it's where I'm from and I love the unique cultural, intellectual, and economic contributions we make to the national Black experience.

Gabriella (Gabby) Malavé is a strategist, facilitator, and weaver from Queens, NY. She is passionate about working at the intersection of nature, community, culture, and health. She has experience in strategic planning, youth and program development, and community engagement.

Favorite Black space: Cafe Erzulie

Jason Alston is an attorney and a social engineer. He is a proud native New Yorker who has made his home in the DMV. Throughout his life he has committed his time, talent and resources to positively impact communities of color.

Favorite Black space: My grandmother’s couch. There’s always peace there, no matter how chaotic the world is.

Jennifer is an urban planner who loves community engagement. She’s worked in affordable housing and bicycle and pedestrian planning, and now does arts-based community development in St. Louis.

Favorite Black space: The family reunion. The laughter, the music, the stories, all the generations together... just magic.

Justin is a planning and engineering professional working to use data to help make the ways we plan for mobility more equitable, accessible, and effective.

Favorite Black space: St. Rest No 2 (on 87th St in Chicago) because of the friendliness, the food and the longevity.

LaTasha has been supporting non profits and social organizations for over 20 years. She has consulted for organizations like Work Ready Oklahoma, CHUMS OKC, and NEOKC Renaissance. In 2019, she founded Lillian Timber Farms, a non profit urban farm in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Favorite Black space: The garden! The colorfulness and richness of the garden reminds me of the fullness of Black People and Black Culture.

Melissa Lee is an urban planner, community organizer, and reformed public servant, steeped in the certainty that anything is possible when radical imagination pairs with action. Throughout her professional journey, she has brought this certainty as Principal at Public Works Partners.

Favorite Black space: The median in New Orleans, or they space they refer to as the "neutral ground." Now as a part of the nomenclature applied to any such median, the neutral ground is a prominent player in a life well lived in New Orleans. Neutral grounds play a prominent role in the history, culture and most importantly it is the space where common purpose, energy and passion among people are nurtured.

Michele Y. Washington is a transdisciplinary designer, researcher, writer, and academic. Her projects span civic design, cultural spaces, curatorial, non-profit, publishing, and archival collections. Currently, she works for Coforma, in Civic Design.

Favorite Black space: Freedom and Humanity

Peter is the founder of WorkUrban, a design consultancy that partners with communities, individuals and institutions while engaging students on a pathway toward leadership and empowerment through community engagement and participatory design.

Favorite Black space: Janet's, a Jamaican restaurant in a private house in Queens, NY

RaShaunda is a culturally centered educator of reproductive health and well-being. She is a Multi-Certified Community-Based Practitioner whose expertise brings a conscious focus to intercept common challenges associated with underrepresented urban childbearing communities.

Favorite Black space: My favorite Black space is Kindred Spirits. It's a local community space for Black professionals and community members that centers urban culture and entertainment in NE OKC.

Saradine is a senior project manager at NYCEDC. She is interested in how the public realm can be used to empower marginalized communities. She is passionate about equity and justice in public planning processes and prioritizes community engagement in all projects she takes part in.

Favorite Black space: Flatbush in Brooklyn! I especially love visiting the Haitian restaurants and bakeries. When I'm feeling homesick these spaces provide some much needed comfort.

Tiffany-Ann Taylor is the Vice President for Transportation at the Regional Plan Association. Prior to working at RPA, Tiffany worked in public service on transformative urban and suburban transportation projects for freight and passenger mobility.

Favorite Black space: Beauty supply stores. Although not often explicitly black spaces, finding familiar beauty products, hair care products and make up is affirming. It means a lot to find products that make you feel beautiful when we often exist in places that constantly tell us we are not.

Favorite Black space: My favorite Black space is the hair salon because it's where I can be in sisterhood, be supported, and leave looking and feeling better!